حَمَلَ is the ordinary Form-I verb for carrying something, but its most frequent formal uses extend far beyond objects in your hands. A person يحمل مسؤولية “bears responsibility,” a report يحمل رسالة “carries a message,” and حَمَلَهُ على الاعتذار means “it led or compelled him to apologize.” Pregnancy belongs to the same root but has its own intransitive frame.
English divides these ideas among carry, bear, contain, cause, and become pregnant. Arabic keeps one sound verb and lets the object or preposition identify the sense. This page brings those forms and frames together; the Form-I overview explains the wider sound-verb system.
Lookup card: حَمَلَ — يَحْمِلُ
The root is ح-م-ل, Form I. It is a sound triliteral verb: none of its radicals is weak or doubled, so its consonants remain stable. The lexical vowel pairing must still be learned: حَمَلَ — يَحْمِلُ, not an imperfect guessed from the English meaning.
| Part | Verified form | Core use |
|---|---|---|
| perfect, 3 m.sg. | حَمَلَ | he carried / bore |
| imperfect, 3 m.sg. | يَحْمِلُ | he carries / bears |
| imperative, 2 m.sg. | اِحْمِلْ | carry! |
| maṣdar | حَمْلٌ | carrying; pregnancy |
| active participle | حَامِلٌ | carrying; carrier; pregnant |
| passive participle | مَحْمُولٌ | carried; borne; portable |
| passive | حُمِلَ — يُحْمَلُ | was / is carried |
The maṣdar حَمْل covers both the act of carrying and pregnancy. The differently vocalized noun حِمْل is a load or burden that is carried. Ordinary unvocalized writing shows both as حمل, so context supplies the reading. حَامِل likewise means a carrier or holder in compounds such as حامل البطاقة, and “pregnant” when predicated of a woman.
حمل المسعف الطفل إلى سيارة الإسعاف.
ḥamala l-musʿifu ṭ-ṭifla ʾilā sayyārati l-ʾisʿāf.
The paramedic carried the child to the ambulance. (Formal neutral.)
يحمل كل صندوق عشرين كيلوغراما من المعدات.
yaḥmilu kullu ṣundūqin ʿishrīna kīlūghrāman mina l-muʿaddāt.
Each box carries twenty kilograms of equipment. (Formal technical register.)
Ranked meanings and valency
1. Carry or transport a direct object
The most concrete frame is حَمَلَ + object. No preposition separates the verb from the thing carried. A following destination uses its own preposition, normally إلى, and a source may use من.
حملت ليلى الحاسوب معها إلى الاجتماع.
ḥamalat laylā l-ḥāsūba maʿahā ʾilā l-ijtimāʿ.
Layla took the laptop with her to the meeting. (Formal neutral.)
احملوا الصناديق من المخزن إلى الشاحنة بحذر.
iḥmilū ṣ-ṣanādīqa mina l-makhzani ʾilā sh-shāḥinati biḥadhar.
Carry the boxes from the storeroom to the truck carefully. (Formal instruction.)
With vehicles, documents, and signals, English may prefer “hold,” “transport,” or “carry,” but Arabic syntax is unchanged: تحمل السفينة البضائع and تحمل البطاقة اسمه both take a direct object.
2. Bear an abstract burden or carry content
Formal MSA routinely uses حمل with مسؤولية، عبء، معنى، رسالة، دلالة، مخاطر. This extension is productive but not empty: the subject is conceived as supporting, containing, or conveying the object.
يتخذ المدير القرار، لكن المجلس يحمل المسؤولية القانونية.
yattakhidhu l-mudīru l-qarāra, lakinna l-majlisa yaḥmilu l-masʾūliyyata l-qānūniyya.
The director makes the decision, but the board bears legal responsibility. (Formal.)
يحمل البيان رسالة واضحة إلى الشركاء الدوليين.
yaḥmilu l-bayānu risālatan wāḍiḥatan ʾilā sh-shurakāʾi d-dawliyyīn.
The statement carries a clear message to international partners. (Formal journalistic register.)
قد تحمل هذه العبارة أكثر من معنى.
qad taḥmilu hādhihi l-ʿibāratu ʾakthara min maʿnā.
This expression may carry more than one meaning. (Formal academic register.)
English often uses have in these contexts. Translating that English verb mechanically as لديه would lose the idea that a text, act, or institution conveys a meaning or bears a duty.
3. Pregnancy: intransitive and adjectival uses
For “become pregnant,” حَمَلَت المرأة is intransitive. The fetus or child can be introduced with بـ, and duration commonly appears with منذ or a time expression. The adjective حامل expresses the resulting state. These are neutral medical and general MSA uses, not euphemisms.
حملت بطفلها الأول بعد سنوات من العلاج.
ḥamalat biṭiflihā l-ʾawwali baʿda sanawātin mina l-ʿilāj.
She became pregnant with her first child after years of treatment. (Formal neutral.)
هي حامل في الشهر السادس وتتابع فحوصها بانتظام.
hiya ḥāmilun fī sh-shahri s-sādisi wa-tutābiʿu fuḥūṣahā bintiẓām.
She is six months pregnant and attends her checkups regularly. (Formal neutral.)
Do not confuse the state adjective حامل with the finite imperfect تحمل. Unvocalized تحمل may mean تَحْمِلُ “she carries/is pregnant,” تَحْمِلُ “you carry,” or Form V تَتَحَمَّلُ only when the extra ت is actually written.
The productive frame حَمَلَ ... على
With a person as object, حَمَلَ شخصًا على + maṣdar / أن-clause means “lead, induce, or compel someone to.” The subject may be a person, motive, circumstance, or emotion. The construction does not automatically imply physical force; context determines whether the pressure is gentle motivation or compulsion.
حملته الأدلة الجديدة على تغيير رأيه.
ḥamalat-hu l-ʾadillatu l-jadīdatu ʿalā taghyīri raʾyih.
The new evidence led him to change his mind. (Formal.)
حمل الضغط المالي الشركة على أن تؤجل المشروع.
ḥamala ḍ-ḍaghṭu l-māliyyu sh-sharikata ʿalā ʾan tuʾajjila l-mashrūʿ.
Financial pressure forced the company to postpone the project. (Formal.)
In academic and legal interpretation, حَمَلَ النصَّ على معنى means “construe the text as bearing a meaning.” Here the interpreter is the subject, the text is the object, and على introduces the interpretation.
حملت المحكمة العبارة على معناها القانوني الضيق.
ḥamalati l-maḥkamatu l-ʿibārata ʿalā maʿnāhā l-qānūniyyi ḍ-ḍayyiq.
The court construed the expression in its narrow legal sense. (Formal legal register.)
The older sense حَمَلَ على العدو “charged or attacked the enemy” is (literary / military-historical). It should not be treated as the default modern meaning of every bare حمل على.
Mood, passive, and participles
Because حمل is sound, the stem does not lose a radical in the subjunctive or jussive. Only the final mood vowel changes: لن يَحْمِلَ versus لم يَحْمِلْ. The imperative is built from the jussive stem with hamzat al-waṣl: اِحْمِلْ.
لن يحمل الجسر هذا الوزن قبل تدعيمه.
lan yaḥmila l-jisru hādhā l-wazna qabla tadʿīmih.
The bridge will not bear this weight before it is reinforced. (Formal technical register.)
لم يحمل التقرير أي اتهام مباشر.
lam yaḥmili t-taqrīru ʾayya ttihāmin mubāshir.
The report contained no direct accusation. (Formal journalistic register.)
The passive حُمِلَ — يُحْمَلُ is common when the carrier is unknown or irrelevant. محمول is also highly productive in compounds: هاتف محمول “mobile phone,” جهاز محمول “portable device,” and بيانات محمولة “carried/embedded data,” depending on field.
حمل المصاب إلى أقرب مستشفى بطائرة مروحية.
ḥumila l-muṣābu ʾilā ʾaqrabi mustashfan biṭāʾiratin mirwaḥiyya.
The injured person was carried to the nearest hospital by helicopter. (Formal report.)
High-frequency collocations
| Collocation | Meaning and register |
|---|---|
| حَمَلَ شَيْئًا مَعَهُ | carry / take something with him (neutral) |
| حَمَلَ الْمَسْؤُولِيَّةَ | bear responsibility (formal) |
| حَمَلَ رِسَالَةً / مَعْنًى | carry a message / meaning (formal) |
| حَمَلَ عَلَى عَاتِقِهِ | take upon himself (formal, figurative) |
| حَمَلَهُ عَلَى التَّرَاجُعِ | led / forced him to retreat (formal) |
| حَمَلَ النَّصَّ عَلَى مَعْنًى | interpret the text as having a meaning (academic/legal) |
| حَامِلُ جَوَازِ السَّفَرِ | passport holder (administrative) |
Common Mistakes
Guessing the imperfect vowel
❌ يحمله كل صباح إلى المكتب.
yaḥmaluhu kulla ṣabāḥin ʾilā l-maktab
Incorrect reading for ‘he carries it’: the Form-I imperfect of حمل is يَحْمِلُ. The unvocalized Arabic sentence itself is correctly spelled.
✅ يحمله كل صباح إلى المكتب.
yaḥmiluhu kulla ṣabāḥin ʾilā l-maktab.
He carries it to the office every morning.
Adding a preposition before the carried object
❌ حمل العامل بالحقيبة إلى السيارة.
Incorrect for ‘carried the bag’—the thing carried is a direct object. With بـ, the phrase can instead describe means or accompaniment in another context.
✅ حمل العامل الحقيبة إلى السيارة.
ḥamala l-ʿāmilu l-ḥaqībata ʾilā s-sayyāra.
The worker carried the bag to the car.
Replacing على in the inducement frame
❌ حمله الخوف إلى مغادرة المنزل.
Incorrect for ‘fear drove him to leave’—the established causative frame is حمله على, not حمله إلى.
✅ حمله الخوف على مغادرة المنزل.
ḥamalahu l-khawfu ʿalā mughādarati l-manzil.
Fear drove him to leave the house.
Misplacing the person in the causative frame
❌ حمل المدير على الموظف الاعتذار عن الخطأ.
Incorrect for ‘the director made the employee apologize’—the induced person is the direct object before على.
✅ حمل المدير الموظف على الاعتذار عن الخطأ.
ḥamala l-mudīru l-muwaẓẓafa ʿalā l-iʿtidhāri ʿani l-khaṭaʾ.
The director made the employee apologize for the mistake.
Key Takeaways
- حَمَلَ — يَحْمِلُ — اِحْمِلْ is a sound Form-I verb with a lexical a–i vowel pairing.
- Its object is direct: carry a bag, bear responsibility, and carry a meaning all use حمل + object.
- Pregnancy uses intransitive حملت or adjectival هي حامل; بـ can introduce the child.
- حمله على فعل شيء means “led or compelled him to do something,” while legal or academic حمل النص على معنى means “interpreted the text in a sense.”
- Passive حُمِلَ — يُحْمَلُ and participle محمول are frequent in reports and technical compounds.
Related Topics
- دفع — payB2 — Use دفع for paying, pushing, prompting, and warding off, with sense-specific objects, recipients, methods, goals, and passive forms.
- لبس — wearB2 — Distinguish لَبِسَ ‘wear’ from لَبَسَ ‘confuse’ and use their forms, objects, commands, and collocations accurately.
- كان — beA2 — Reference the hollow verb كان across its full paradigm, copular and existential senses, predicate case, conditionals, and high-frequency collocations.
- Form I: The Lexical BaseA2 — Learn why Form I must be stored through verified principal parts, stem-vowel class, valency, and maṣdar rather than one universal pattern.